


toes in the sand

by dizzy



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 17:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15369777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: Kathryn and Seven talk a walk on the beach.





	toes in the sand

**Author's Note:**

> Written for starshipvoyeur for the sapphicstartrek fic exchange!

It's breezy on the holodeck. 

They're on a planet Kathryn's never been to before. 

She doesn't often visit new places. Her entire life is tumbling, stumbling, falling face first into something unexplored with every step forward now. She finds comfort in familiarity, in closing her eyes and imagining she's somewhere she's been before without the weight of her entire crew on her shoulders. She likes to smell home cooked meals and walk through lightly wooded sprawling hills and sit in a busy San Francisco coffee shop watching the cars glide by. 

But this isn't just about her. 

In fact, it's not about her at all. 

* 

Seven sits on a rock. It's beautiful, purple streaked with blue. She's wearing her normal outfit, silver clinging to every curve that Kathryn tells herself she's immune to seeing, to appreciating. 

But this moment feels outside of normality. It feels like someone's hit pause on the real world. 

The normal rules don't exist here. So Kathryn looks; she looks and lets the swell of emotion slam into her. 

It's deeper than lust, it's more complex than love. She feels like a carer, like a protector, like a mother - and she was, for that brief window of time when Seven was reacquainting herself to the world. 

But Seven deserves more than to be infantalized. She's a human being, a grown woman, capable of knowing her heart and her mind and setting her own boundaries. 

Right now she's let Kathryn past one of those boundaries. This is Seven's program, crafted herself after a startlingly short amount of time dedicated to learning the ins and outs of holodeck program coding. 

Kathryn doesn't know what memories this contains, but she doesn't think it has to do with the Borg. She thinks it must have been before; a child's fond memory rebuilt through the eyes of an adult. 

Were Seven's parents here with her? Did her father hold her hand and walk along a crystal shore? Did her mother kneel by her and teach her names for native flora and fauna? Did young Annika try to catch one of the skittering, darting creatures making their way in little groups down the shore? Was she the sort of girl who danced delicately away from a planet's wildlife or did she embrace it and want to make everything her pet? 

Seven turns and looks at her. Their eyes meet, and there's nothing but calm between them. "Come sit," Seven says, and rests a hand on the space beside her briefly. 

*

The silence stretches long. 

Maybe Seven could sit here without speaking forever, but Kathryn gets antsy under her skin. She's a woman of action, Mark used to say, content to sit back and let her... well, act. 

"Let's take a walk," she says. 

Seven looks over at her. The only indicator of surprise is the slight part to her lips. 

Then she nods and stands. "Alright. We will walk." 

And they do - side by side, through a shore that will never end until they're ready for it too. 

Seven stops suddenly. "Look," she says, voice a whisper of almost-awe as she puts a hand on Kathryn's arm. 

For a few seconds all Kathryn can do is look at where Seven's touching her. Seven's fingers are warm, warmer than Kathryn had expected. It's the hand without any implants remaining, just long slender fingers resting on Kathryn's skin. 

Then she does look up. There are schools of something, some kind of inky black fish, jumping in perfect unison. 

It's a lovely sight, but Kathryn doesn't quite feel the rapture that Seven does until she looks at Seven's face. Her eyes are wide and taking it in, her mouth curved in the closest thing to genuine delight Kathryn's seen on her face. 

"My father..." Seven starts. "My father watched them with me. We sat - here. Somewhere. I can't... I don't remember everything." 

She sounds embarrassed. Ashamed, even. 

Kathryn covers Seven's hand with her own. "You were a child." 

"Yes, but." Seven's face looks pinched with frustration. "It's a very inefficient system of recollection. That I know this does not match the memories that I have but I cannot recall enough to - to make it align. I don't understand why."

"Sometimes nostalgia is just a gut feeling," Kathryn says. "But you've done an amazing job. It's beautiful here." 

"Thank you," Seven says, as though she just understands it's what she's supposed to say. Then she looks at Kathryn and something in that tight expression softens. "I do not know why I felt compelled to bring you here." 

Kathryn thinks she knows why. But maybe she doesn't. Maybe it's wishful thinking. Maybe she's a sad, lonely captain who projects what she wants onto beautiful women that stride into her life and look at her like she's neither friend nor enemy nor savior. 

There are boundaries Kathryn tries to keep in place. Seven has no concept of them. 

If Seven comes to understand herself enough to know why she wants to collect private moments with Kathryn like gems to add to a clandestine collection, then Kathryn won't stand a chance. She's not sure she'll even try. 

(There's a morbid joke in there somewhere, she thinks. Resistance and futility and all of the sort.) 

"I'm glad you did," Kathryn says softly. "I like when you show me thinks about your life." 

Seven turns bashful, or her version of it. She turns her head to the side. The breeze is still blowing and a wisp of hair has escaped the sleek, tucked in bun. 

"Did this planet have cities?" Kathryn asks. 

Seven nods. "My mother - she took me shopping in a marketplace. My parents.. they traded for information. On the Borg, I presume. But my mother bought a dress there..." 

"You should try and recreate the city next," Kathryn says. "Try to remember what the food tasted like. What the city smelled of." 

"If I do," Seven says. "Will you walk with me through it?" 

Kathryn's heart does a strange thing that it used to do quite a lot as a girl, but not much in recent years. The feeling warms her through and through. "I'd walk with you." 

Seven nods and with a deep, calming breath, pulls herself back into something more reserved. 

They keep walking.


End file.
